tries.

Ventilation of Houses

All dwellings should be _freely ventilated_ during the _night_ as well
as day, and it is a great mistake to suppose, as in Liberia (where every
settler sleeps with every part of his house closely shut--doors,
windows, and all) that it is deletereous to have the house ventilated
during the evening, although they go out to night meetings, visit each
other in the evening, and frequently sit on their porches and piazzas
till a late hour in the night, conversing, without any injurious effects
whatever. Dr. Roberts, and I think Dr. McGill and a few other gentlemen,
informed me that their sleeping apartments were exceptions to the custom
generally in Liberia. This stifling custom to save themselves does not
prevail among the natives of Africa anywhere, nor among the foreigners
anywhere in the Yoruba country, that I am aware of, and I am under the
impression that it was the result of fear or precaution, not against the
night air, but against the imaginary (and sometimes real) creeping
things--as insects and reptiles--which might find their way into the
houses at night.

Test of Night Air

While in Liberia, I have traversed rivers in an open boat at night,
slept beyond the Kavalla Falls in open native houses, and at the
residence of Rev. Alexander Crummel, Mount Vaughan, Cape Palmas, I slept
every evening while there with both window and door as ventilators. The
window was out and the door inside. In Abbeokuta, Ijaye, Oyo, and
Ogbomoso, we slept every night with ventilated doors and windows, when
we slept at all in a house. But in Illorin we always slept out of doors
by preference, and only retired to repose in-doors (which were always
open) when it was too cool to sleep out, as our bedding consisted only
of a native mat on the ground, and a calico sheet spread over us. And I
should here make acknowledgments to my young colleague, Mr. Campbell,
for the use of his large Scotch shawl when I was unwell, and indeed
almost during our entire travel--it being to me a great accommodation, a
comfort and convenience which I did not possess.

Test of Exposure

I have started two and three hours before daybreak, laying on my bed in
an open canoe, ascending the Ogun river, at different times during the
six days' journey up to Abbeokuta; Mr. Campbell and myself have
frequently slept out in open courts and public market-places, without
shed or piazza covering; and when journeying from Oyo to Ibaddan,